Originally Posted By TDLFAN <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-tourism0306aug03" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com /business/custom/tourism/orl-tourism0306aug03</a>,1,146352.story?coll=orl-business-headlines-tourism The Orlando Sentinel's front page this morning telling of Disney's efforts to have walk around characters be knowledgeable in spanish to court more tourist. Seems kind of odd to me since 90% of the CMs at the "Mundo de Walt Disney" already hablan espanol. So what gives...? Are our state tourist officials so clueless not to realize that most of the hispanic populations who can afford to come to WDW already have some knowledge about English language, since it is taught in school in latin America? Or, could they possibly be thinking those brazillian tour groups (the ones who hardly speak english at WDW) probably speak spanish only? (They don't as they speak "portuges")
Originally Posted By alexbook Not sure about WDW, but at DLR we get a lot of guests with what you might call "limited English proficiency." They can get by in English, but they're clearly struggling. I noticed that the DLR CM badges have recently been redesigned to include foreign languages spoken. Seems like a good idea to me--Disney is addressing their guests' needs.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN You mean true Mexicans? Not sure if Mexico pushes english in their school curriculums as much as other hispanic countries though...
Originally Posted By ChiMike I agree, what may be good for DLR may not be for WDW. It's bad enough that WDW apparently has a poor selection of people to choose from for their walk around characters, now they want to add one more hurdle for the prospect to be cast?! Is speaking a foreign language now more important than actually looking like the character being portrayed; an objective WDW can barely meet in the first place? One more thing for the CMs to have to stress out about.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 I have the same thing happen at my job TDLFAN, no one seems to understand that just because your hispanic/latin doesn't mean your first language is spanish. It could be portaguese as you stated, plus different regions speak different dialects of spanish. My abuelita is from Spain, what I learned from her is NOT what is being spoken in California by the Mexicans from Mexico.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 FYI - I'm also part Mexican but my relatives spoke old California spanish, not spanish from Mexico. There's a difference. Like we say sarsa for salsa. For us, salsa is a dance, sarsa is chili. ;>
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>You mean true Mexicans? Not sure if Mexico pushes english in their school curriculums as much as other hispanic countries though...<< Most middle to upper middle class Mexican's are taught English at school. The Mexican demographic in LA are locals, who mostly hail from Mexico's lower classes, and are thus less educated. Many are not only non English speakers, some are even functionally illiterate in Spanish (analfabetas).
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>My abuelita is from Spain, what I learned from her is NOT what is being spoken in California by the Mexicans from Mexico.>> Spaniards speak with a lisp: salsa->thaltha. No one in Latin America has this quirck, which was developed after the new world was colonized. <<Like we say sarsa for salsa. For us, salsa is a dance, sarsa is chili>> That's a new one for me (and I've been to Spain). Maybe its regional, from La Corun~a or Galicia perhaps.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>My abuelita is from Spain, what I learned from her is NOT what is being spoken in California by the Mexicans from Mexico.<< FWIW, at least from a gramatical perspective, most Latin American countries do adhere to the rules of the Royal Academy of the Castilian language. There will of course be regional differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. My favorite is all the different words for a bus: autobus, omnibus, camion (Mexico - the word really means truck) and my favorite from Puerto Rico: gua-gua
Originally Posted By Lake Nona My spanish in not that good, but the word I know the most is...Aeroporto de Orlando.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN I believe that was portuguese there Nona. The right word in spanish is "aeropuerto", close.. And I am with the other poster... Some PRican words are just too odd.. I hate las gua-guas de WDW. LOLOL!!!
Originally Posted By fkurucz And I've often wondered why they call oranges "chinas" (CHEE-nahs). Mexico is not without it quirks. They use many native words: tecolote (owl), guajolote (turkey). Another Mexicanism is to excessively use the diminutive form. In Mexico you don't drink a cafe with your friends, you have a cafecito. Or you will have a sopita with you meal.
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 <<Are our state tourist officials so clueless not to realize that most of the hispanic populations who can afford to come to WDW already have some knowledge about English language, since it is taught in school in latin America?>> Oh, come on. Not everyone from Espana or Argentina is completely fluent in ingles, even if they studied it in escuela secundaria. What a welcome, what a really nice Disney touch, it would be for them to have a comfortable, fluent conversation with characters in their first language. I don't understand the uproar about this being unfair to CM's. It would make speaking a second language a "plus" in terms of hiring. Is that so unfair? Maybe it's time that the US stopped being so insular and we stopped expecting that everyone coming to the Number One Tourist Destination In The World would have spent years perfecting our language in preparation for their vacation. This does raise two questions for me: (1) Why Spanish? Is that the number one language barrier at WDW? I might have guessed it would be Chinese or Portuguese or Japanese. (2) How many characters actually talk, anyhow? TDLFAN, I think you're being a bit overly judgemental about latinos and others who haven't become as multi-lingual as yourself.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I have more of a problem with the lack of English-fluent CMs at DLP ... and WDW!
Originally Posted By Lisann22 sarsa is an old California spanish word, not a word from Spain. I do know about the lisp, that is a particular region. My grandma does not speak that way. I've been to Spain too. My grandma's family is from Avila.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>I don't understand the uproar about this being unfair to CM's. It would make speaking a second language a "plus" in terms of hiring. Is that so unfair? (2) How many characters actually talk, anyhow?<< My point, which I might have not explained well, is that WDW obviously has a hard enough time casting it's face characters. (The face characters are in question here, since the folks who can hide their face within rubber are squelched anyway). So requiring multi-lingual face characters only makes for a MORE slim casting pool. In my eyes, a requirement for speaking a foreign language should not disqualify someone who otherwise would be inspired casting. It would be a whole different story if there were long lines of appropriate looking folks clamoring to be a face character and it was 1975 and WDW could be picky by demanding multi-lingual requirements. However, like the front-line casting woes at DLR, I would say beggars can't be choosers right now, and WDW is begging for decent face characters. >>(1) Why Spanish? Is that the number one language barrier at WDW? I might have guessed it would be Chinese or Portuguese or Japanese.<< I have a problem that a world-wide destination like WDW would favor one foreign language over the other. I'm sure there's no current problem but you would think that a lawsuit would pop up sooner or later because a warning spiel was in English and Spanish but not Portuguese or Chinese and someone speaking those languages became injured. I also agree with Spirit, there is an increase at WDW of front-line CMs who have poor English ability. I don't see management in any rush to make sure all of their front-line CMs can speak fluid English; this seems more motivated by PR than anything else.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>The lisp is mainly from the Catalan region of Spain.<< Are you sure about that? They have their own language in Cantalunya. Anyway, I heard the lisp accent at lot in Madrid, but not in Barca.
